


Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy

by pukeytyler (cherryblur)



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: 1980s, Derogatory Language, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, M/M, Masturbation, Past Sexual Abuse, Permanent Injury, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sexual Content, Speech Disorders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2019-11-29 03:37:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18217679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherryblur/pseuds/pukeytyler
Summary: Tyler talks funny. Josh doesn’t seem to mind.





	Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy

**Author's Note:**

> read th’tags

“Tyler, get off the floor unless you’re eating the carpet.”

Tyler turns his head and sees bare feet walk past his face. Nice. 

“Fuck off,” He says loud enough for many ears to hear. Jenna laughs and kicks his leg.  
“Get up, dickhead. Put your tongue back in your mouth, too. Your teeth aren’t goin’ anywhere.”

Tyler stops fucking with his gap long enough to roll onto his back and take a long stretch. He didn’t usually sleep on the floor, but he was a rough sleeper.  
So..he usually slept on the floor. 

He hums a quiet song and feels the vibrations hit his gums straight on. Jenna yells another order for him to put on decent clothes because her boyfriend is coming over and he looks like a homeless kid right now. 

Tyler blows a half-hearted raspberry at her and pulls on jeans. 

“He doethn’t even like me,” He tries to fuss while digging through his dirty clothes for a sweatshirt.  
“He juth maketh fun of me.” 

Jenna clicks her tongue. “Well, maybe if you hadn’t fucked yourself up so bad he wouldn’t have a reason to.”  
She’s seated cross-legged in the living room loft.  
Tyler digs his toes into the green carpet below him and sighs. 

The only place he can actually escape the loud buzzing of Wheel Of Fortune is the bathroom downstairs.  
So to there he goes, footsteps quiet and tentative. It’s hard to live in a house with someone that treats him like more of a burden than family or friend.  
He’s gotten quite used to that.

In the bathroom, Tyler spends almost all of his time staring at his dumb face.  
He glares at the stubble that refuses to grow into a beard, the scars that make patches where hair doesn’t even grow, the zits starting to pop up beneath his skin.

Then he opens his mouth. And chokes on his own laughter. 

They’re stupid. A beautiful row of front teeth, completely obliterated. Two front beauties shoved so far up into his gums they’d have to pull them out completely to get them down. The incisors next door aren’t far off and stair-step their way to his front ones.

His canines look like fangs.  
He sticks his tongue through the gap in his mouth and cheeses, eyes narrowed in an attempt of _Maybe if I squint at it it’ll be nicer_.  
Needless to say, it does not help. 

He hears the front screen door slam and Brendon is stamping his way upstairs with those very expensive leather boots he constantly reminded Tyler could knock the rest of his teeth out if he quote-unquote “looks at my girl the wrong way.”

Tyler had laughed and told him to take his best shot.  
He’s gay, anyways. Probably. 

He wants to shout a goodbye to the upstairs, but knows it’s fruitless. The air will be filled with the creaking sofa in minutes, so he just leaves.  
Fall air hits his face hard but his worn out sneakers hit the pavement even harder. 

His hands are stuck in his hoodie pocket, only because they won’t stop moving all the God damn time.  
_The curse of the essential tremor_ , he thinks in a lighthearted bubble. He wouldn’t have it if he’d have kept his big dumb mouth shut, that’s for sure. 

He’s got nowhere to go, but clean, cool air is much better than the weed-stained smog that filled their house.  
Josh is across the street, too.

He’s the neighbor. The _hot_ neighbor who mows his lawn shirtless in the summer and makes Tyler’s jacking off fantasies 10x better, to be honest. (It’s possible he may or may not be completely willing to drop to his knees and suck Josh’s dick until the cows come home.) Then again, it was just an innocent fantasy.

He’s clothed now, mainly because of the weather. Tyler gives him a little wave from his place on the sidewalk.  
Josh is walking to his car when he sees him.  
“Hey Tyler!” He calls out, his dumbly perfect smile greeting a pair of dead eyes so cleanly. Tyler feels his chest start to purr with butterflies.

”Out for a walk?” He asks, checking both sides of the road before crossing to him. His keys jingle from the ring hanging from his finger. Tyler watches every movement too carefully.

He shrugs. “Dunno. Brendon juth came over tho I didn’t really wanna be in there right now,” He adds a small laugh afterwards and Josh smiles sympathetically. He knows enough. And besides, news doesn’t stay very secretive in their small ghetto-like neighborhood.  
“Sorry about that, man. I bet you can’t wait for Jenna to finally break up with that dickhead,” He gives Tyler a friendly clap on the shoulder and right as his touch leaves him the brunette feels if it had lasted any longer he’d have passed out from pure unadulterated teenage lust.

 _You’re 24!_ His mind screams at him when his face is blushed to the tips of his ears (it’s just the cold.) _You can’t go jizzing your pants every time a hot guy touches you._  
Tyler swallows thick and Josh says something he wasn’t paying attention to.

”I..what?” He shakes his head in a meek apology and can see Josh’s dog Jim poking his head over the couch through his big front window.

He hates dogs.

”I asked if you wanted to hang out with me?” Josh asks again, head tilted just a bit. “I was going to go grab a couple new parts for my truck, but I can do it tomorrow.” He’s still got that stupid, stupid smile on that makes Tyler’s knees buckle and heart thrum against his ribcage like a trapped bird.

”You just seemed bored and looking to get out,” He finishes, a little sheepishly. Tyler’s jaw almost drops.

”Oh,” He blinks a couple times just to make sure he’s still awake. “Yeah, I mean thure, yeah man.” He tries a smile on for himself when Josh looks even happier than him. He doesn’t scold him for not listening, he doesn’t smack the side of his head and ask if anyone’s up there, like Jenna does.

”Awesome! I just got some new records I’ve been dying to play, you’ll have to help me critique them,” Josh starts, back turned as he starts towards his house.  
Tyler starts to breathe a little heavier when he realizes he has to cross the street. Josh gives him a funny look that he shrugs off with a wave of his hand.

He jogs ahead and is panting when he finally makes it.  
Tyler can’t cross the road. He can’t. It’s hard.

Josh doesn’t comment on his weird street-crossing thing, and instead leads him up cool cement steps and keeps the screen door open for him.  
“Thankth,” He says, his face slowly starting to lose its blush because he’s _comfortable_. Josh isn’t like Jenna, who keeps him on his toes and spits fury at him when he slips up.

Jim barks a greeting and wags his tail, tongue lolled out and drooling. Tyler gives him a tentative pat on the head that seems to satisfy him. He trots over to where Josh is sifting through his vinyl collection and nudges his leg with his nose. He’s watched Josh walk the pup many times throughout the day and night from his upstairs window. That’s not weird, right?

Josh coos something at the dog while Tyler takes in the pure...cleanliness of his house.  
It’s nothing like theirs, with dirty dishes and trash littered just about everywhere he stepped. Dust and dirt was almost a staple, and cobwebs practically lived in any orfice they could.

No, Josh’s house is much nicer.  
He’s only been here once, formally, at the housewarming party thrown a few years ago. They’d just been aquantinces, until Josh wandered upon Tyler in his darkest moment and single-handily saved his life by calling the police.  
Jenna had been more annoyed than worried.

He likes to think of them as friends now, as he sits on plush leather and eyes newly cleaned _fancy_ ashtrays sitting on the coffee table. They used whatever happened to be handy at the moment at their house, and yes, sometimes Tyler was burned by the falling ashes of Brendon’s cigars.

A crackling noise occurs over the speakers of Josh’s player until soft piano tones fill the empty space around them. Jim lays under the coffee table and stares up with big puppy eyes.

It’s a song he’s heard before, many many times. He doesn’t know why Josh calls it ‘new’ as he said.

 _I can dim the lights and sing you songs full of sad things_  
_We can do the tango just for two_  
_I can serenade and gently play on your heart strings_  
_Be your Valentino just for you.._

”Ithn’t thith from like ‘75 or thomething?” Tyler tilts his head when the band starts to play behind the piano, spewing lyrics of lover boys and good old-fashioned relationships.

Josh nods from his place in the kitchen now, where he grabs two pouches of Capri Sun. “Yeah. ‘74 I believe, but I just love this album so much I couldn’t resist to start with it,” He says sheepishly.  
Tyler sticks his straw through his Capri Sun and doesn’t mind the child-like fondness. It’s wild cherry.

Josh sits next to him and hums the chorus softly. “I really look up to him,” He ponders. “Freddie, I mean. What an idol, y’know?”  
Tyler knows.  
“D’you have The Game?”

Josh nods. “Of course, s’next to my other albums. It’s gonna be an instant classic, I can already tell.” He speaks as if Tyler is an old friend, someone he’s known forever and can talk casually with whenever he needs.  
Tyler still can’t figure out a way to thank him for saving his life, the dumbass.

Jim’s ears perk up at the crinkling of their foil juice pouches and he now rests his face in Josh’s lap as if there’s a treat waiting for him to receive. Josh chuckles and ruffles his ears.  
Tyler could learn to like dogs, he thinks. Maybe only Jim.

The rest of the album is overlapped with their talking. Catching up, it could be called.

They sit and talk for hours it seems, with their juice boxes and occasional cigarette. Josh says he doesn’t like to smoke a ton because of asthma, but has friends that do. Tyler tries not to chainsmoke for his sake.

Josh works as a mechanic, Jim is the only dog he’s ever owned, his favorite color is pink, he wants to dye his hair red someday.  
Tyler soaks in all this information and feels like it just fuels his love.

”I could help you,” He says when Josh is flipping the new David Bowie record onto the B side. “Dye your hair, I mean. I think you’d look good in red.”

”Really?” Josh turns and wrings his hands a bit. “I’ve been a little scared to do it, but if you think it’s a good idea, maybe we can tomorrow?” His voice pitches a bit at the end, like he’s the nervous one.  
Tyler smiles naturally for the first time in weeks. “It’th a date then?”

Teenage Wildlife starts to play and Josh laughs with a blush high on his cheeks.

”It’s a date.”

•

That night Tyler’s faced is shoved to far into his pillow he feels the imprint of it still stuck on his cheek when he crashes down into a fitful sleep.

He’s done it doggy-style tonight, with three fingers stuck inside himself and a rough hand tangled in his sheets. His mouth is open, stuck in a silent gasp, drooling and keening like a dog in heat. He doesn’t dare let out the feminine squeaks that want to erupt from his lungs because it’s three in the morning and everyone’s asleep.  
He snuck back in while Jenna was still blazed, too high to care or notcie his precense.

His chest shakes with every breath and he’s truly quaking at the thought of being Josh’s _bitch_. That’s all he wants. Maybe a few cuddles afterwards.  
It’s all _JoshJoshJosh_ and eventually _ahsjsdjsjk_ because he’s never come this hard before, and honestly? He feels awful about it.

 _Nice job, Tyler_ , he thinks after he’s thrown a dirty t-shirt across the room with shame. _Spend one day with your hot neighbor, then finger yourself to the thought of him. Classy._  
His thighs still shake when he finally rests easy and lays down into a more comfortable position. Maybe it’s because the fantasy of having Josh press him down until he squealed was a little too vivid in his brain.

Josh, with his kind eyes and perfect teeth and zero speech impediment. The one who looks like he could bend Tyler over a table and call him a slut but instead acts like a saint and treats him with the upmost respect.

He sighs and stares out the window next to his bed, down at the house across the street. He wonders if Josh ever masturbates.  
Probably not, he’s too pure and wonderful and _sweet_.  
Though he’d be lying if he didn’t find that even hotter.

Tyler calls himself a sick fuck and dreams about his planned outfit for tomorrow.

•

”It’th...different. It’th definitely you.”  
Tyler stands with red dye all the way up to his elbows because Josh wouldn’t stop squirming and it was difficult to get into his freshly bleached hair.

Josh sits on a chair facing a mirror, a standing fan blowing hair onto his slowly drying new locks. Tyler washes what he can off of his arms and admires the way Josh’s hair sort of falls in his face now. It’s longer, almost.

”Let me try thomething,” He says, and grabs a hair tie out of the hair styling kit sat on the table. He wraps Josh’s hair up until it’s in a form-fit bun and smiles at his work. “It’th adorable,” He laughs a bit. Josh raises an eyebrow at him in the mirror and tilts his head.  
“Not bad, you didn’t even stain my forehead as much as your arms.”

It’s a good day.  
Tyler had showered, put on his cutest outfit of shorts and a tank tucked beneath them and set off, determined to make this _friendship_ work.  
He even shaved his legs, just in case.

”I definitely feel a lot more badass,” Josh admits, and when he stands Tyler can sense the new presence that surrounds him. “Don’t get too big-headed, buddy,” He stands with a hip cocked out and they both laugh in unison.  
Josh turns and it’s just quiet, peaceful bliss.

”I really do appreciate it,” He says. “I probably wouldn’t have been able to do it myself if you hadn’t given me the push.”

Tyler waves a hand to show how _casual_ he is. “It wath nothing, man. I had fun.”

Josh bites his lip and nods. “I suppose we should clean all this up, then?” He gestures to the foil and hair accessories littering his dining room table. Jim lays on the couch and snores, waiting patiently for belly rubs he had been promised.  
Tyler points a thumb behind him when he sees it. “You go give your puppy thome love, I can clean it up.” Despite Josh’s fussing, he does it anyway.

He enjoys it. It gives him a vibe that feels like he’s just a cute housewife, quick on his feet and always eager to please his big strong husband.  
_Slow down, tiger_ , his brain chimes in. He laughs out loud and Josh raises an eyebrow at him, Jim happily wagging his tail on his lap.

He’s then running his stained fingers through the fur on Jim’s back when Josh beckons him to the couch. Jim is good. Jim is a good dog who doesn’t bite or snap and instead pants upside down and prods Tyler’s arm for belly rubs.  
Yes, Jim is an exception to his hatred.

”He likes you,” Josh murmurs over the quiet music playing in the background. “‘Course, he likes just about everyone, but I think you’re a favorite.”  
Tyler scratches under Jim’s chin and earns a happy yip in response. They laugh.

“I’m glad,” He mumbles. “Fun fact, I’m actually..thort of terrified of dogth.” Josh gives him a surprised look.  
“Serious? Dude, I could’ve put him away when you came over yesterday.” Jim stretches out and his back paw pushes on Josh’s cheek.

”Nah,” Tyler shrugs. “He’th cool. We’re cool, I think.” His tongue plays with the gap between his teeth and he wonders if Josh would mind it if they kissed.

”Can I athk you thomething?” He turns his head from the now sleeping pup and meets a warm mocha gaze.  
“Yeah, what’s up?” Josh gives him a small smile.

_Can I kiss you?_

”Do you think Jenna would care if I moved out?”

Josh bites his lip. “I..I don’t know. She seems to sort of enjoy having you live with her, from what you’ve told me, but-“ Tyler cuts him off. “But she treath me like I’m a burden.”

Josh nods.

“I’d let you stay with me,” He says a bit too quiet. “I mean, if you wanted to. Maybe a couple days out of the week? Do you think that’d be cool? Jenna doesn’t seem to like me much, so I doubt I’d be seeing her, huh?” He sounds nervous. Of course, Jenna makes everyone nervous.  
Tyler’s heart wants to jump out of his chest because all he wants to say is _yesyesyes_ but he’s got to be polite first.  
“Are you thure? I don’t wanna be y’know, intruding..”

Josh scoffs. “Of course not! We like the same music, Jim loves you, and I think you’re a really good person, Tyler. It’d be like daily sleep-overs.”  
It’s so genuine, so, so sweet Tyler feels like he might just cry. He simply nods and says a quiet thank you in reply.

It’s all smiles and puppy dog drool until Jenna calls him back home.

And when he does go back, he’s so dizzy with love he barely even notices the lecture he gets for wearing ‘slut clothes’ and having red dye all up his arms.

”You haven’t been sleeping around again, have you?” She questions him, along with about a million other things.  
He just shakes his head and stumbles to his room on lovesick toes.

•

It’s been two weeks. Two weeks of Tyler staying the night at Josh’s house every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

It’s two weeks of pure bliss, full of puppy dog kisses and juice boxes and movie marathons. It’s like having a boyfriend, he thinks.

And Jenna doesn’t like it.

She scolds Tyler when he comes home Friday morning, her hair a mess and the bags under her eyes so dark it could be concerning.  
“Tyler Robert Joseph,” She hisses and almost smacks him with her free hand. The other holds a cracking old coffee mug that’s probably filled with gin. “Where have you been? You’re disappearing every other night, pretending I don’t notice, sneaking back in when you think I’m not looking..”

”You’re not going _out_ again, are you? Not like last time? Please tell me no.”

Tyler frowns and adjusts the backpack on his shoulders. He shakes his head in reply.  
“I was juth at Josh’s,” He says quietly, teeth chewing on his bottom lip. “He’th my friend.”

Jenna furrows her eyebrows. “Josh...you mean the boy across the street?” Her eyes widen. “No, Tyler, you’re not allowed to see him. He’s a _queer_ , don’t you know?” She says the last part like it tastes bad on her tongue.

”What’th wrong with that?” Tyler feels his heart start to sink.  
“I told you when you had your little accident I would never let you be exposed to people like that anymore,” Jenna sighs and takes his hand.  
“Josh thaved my life,” He mumbles. Jenna doesn’t listen.  
“Go take a shower. You’re staying here and within my sight until further notice.”

He remembers his accident. Right.

The accident including him and a group of homophobes that ended in a failed curb-stomping and gifted Tyler with a mouth full of blood and asphalt.  
Josh had found him stumbling home at two in the morning while walking his dog, the brunette half-dead and barely conscious. He’d been the one to call the ambulance. Tyler still somehow can’t figure out how to thank him.

He lets his backpack fall to the floor and follows the orders given to him. Jenna mutters things under her breath and takes sips of her gin coffee. It’s so useless to try and argue with her.

His shower is cold and he doesn’t feel anything truly wash off of him because Josh has made him feel more clean and pure than anything he’s ever done.

Maybe he’ll try to call him tonight.

•

”Maybe if you hadn’t been gone so much I wouldn’t be doing this,” Jenna says an especially warm afternoon.

Tyler sits shirtless in one of their rickety dining room chairs, shoulders sunken and face contorted into a mask of discomfort. Jenna massages tea tree oil into his hair with long manicured fingernails. The slick white bottle sits on their cluttered countertop, a clearance tag slowly peeling from it. Jenna still won’t get off his back about the price. She’s cheap in that way.  
There had been an outbreak of lice in the neighborhood and she was taking all the precautions.

”Josh doethn’t have lithe,” Tyler mutters, feet kicking at the chair legs below him. Jenna clicks her tongue and scolds him about leaving for what seems like the millionth time.

”I just want to keep you safe,” She says in that soft voice she uses when Tyler gets night terrors. When she cares.

Then to add salt back into the wound, Brendon pushes through the back door and fizzles his cigarette out on the countertop.  
“Hey baby,” He grins, and Jenna just seems to melt at his form.

Tyler stays deadly quiet and stares at the floor.

”Little fag boy got bugs or somethin’? Wouldn’t be surprised,” Brendon cocks his head with a disgusted smirk and Tyler’s face heats up with a blush that drags itself all the way to the tips of his shoulders.  
“No,” He answers for himself.  
“Just being careful,” Jenna answers for him. “There’s an outbreak of lice in the neighborhood, and he’s been sneaking out; staying at the queer boy’s house across the street.” She hums and goes to wash her hands.

”Gross.” Brendon lights another cigarette and blows smoke over Tyler’s head. “I’ll be upstairs, sweetheart, that oil smell is making me wanna gag.” He shoots Tyler one last dagger look and heads up the unfinished stairs.

Tyler starts to whine a bit and complains about bullied he feels.

”You’re fine,” Jenna drawls and dries her hands on a dishrag. Her soft voice has melted away into the dry tone he’s so, so used to. “Go wash your hair and make sure you dry it all the way, crybaby.”

And then she’s gone.

Tyler washes his hair in the bathroom sink rather than the shower. It’s cold and he hates every minute of it and even after he’s rinsed for the fifth time he still feels the grease of the oil stuck in his hair.  
He thinks he’ll call Josh.

He hears subtle voices from upstairs and takes the landline phone off the wall carefully. Jenna was always one to eavesdrop on just about any conversation.

Josh had written his number down on a slip of paper before Tyler left the first day he stayed over.  
_”Just in case,”_ He had said.

He holds that slip in his fingers now, swallowing thick when he swirls the numbered disk around until there’s a dull ringing in his ear.

”Hello?”

His heart starts to beat again.  
“It’th Tyler,” He says quietly.

”Tyler!” Josh’s voice rises in a happier tone. “What’s going on? You didn’t come over last night, so I assumed you must’ve been busy.”

Tyler laughs without a smile. “Yeah, um, about that.”

The line is silent for a second. “Are you okay?”

”Yeth!” Tyler takes a breath. “I’m fine, Josh. Jenna uh, found out about me and you, um, and she doethn’t like it.”  
It’s quiet on the other end for a bit and he feels like crying.

”I can’t come over anymore. I’m thorry.”

”That’s okay,” Josh says and his voice crackles a bit. “It’s because I’m gay, isn’t it? She doesn’t like homosexuals.”

Tyler sniffs. “..Yeah.”

”I can still call you, right?”

”Of courthe,” He says shakily. “I don’t want to thop talking to you, Josh-I..I’m not going to thop talking to you.”

There’s a sort of relived sigh on the other line. “I don’t want to stop talking to you, either. Are you safe? Are you sure you’re okay? I know you’re not exactly straight, Tyler.”

Tyler laughs a bit. “No, no I’m fine. Jenna just careth about me a lot. Um, can I call you thome other time? I think she might be coming downthairth.”

”Yeah, yes, um-sorry.” Josh sounds hurt.

The phone is clicked back into place just as Jenna’s footsteps patted down the stairs.  
“Who were you talking to?” She asks, eyes narrowed a bit.

Tyler stuffs his hands in his pockets. “No one.” He can tell she’s already half-drunk and she just gives him a glare before grabbing a bag of chips and heading back upstairs.  
The brunette leans against the wall, chest rising in painful breaths.

It’s hard.

•

It’s particularly warm today. Tyler sits on their front porch wearing nothing but sunglasses and a pair of daisy dukes still stained with Josh’s red hair dye.

The sun burns on his skin, but it’s nice.  
He thinks about getting tattoos and wonders if a sunburn has a likeness to the pain of a needle.

Jenna sits next to him slathered in tanning lotion. He voices it to her.

”I wanna get tattooth,” He starts.

”Why?”

”I dunno,” He ponders. “I juth like them. I feel like they’d look cool againth my thkin, ‘cauthe it’th so dark” 

Jenna snorts.  
“It’s because the guy across the street has them, isn’t it? I knew he was a bad influence. Tattoos AND he’s a fag?” She shakes her head like a disappointed mother.

Why is Josh always the root of bad habits in her mind?

Tyler thinks about the colors inked into Josh’s arms, beautiful and melded into a perfect work of art. He remembers running his fingers over an oak tree and a galaxy full of stars.  
“No,” He says to her first question and sort of lies through the teeth he doesn’t have.

”I want them for me.”

”You’re not getting any tattoos,” Jenna decides and hands him another cigarette. “You’re much too sensitive.”

Tyler takes a slow breath and thinks about getting plain black bands looping his arm.

•

It’s difficult.

It’s difficult because Tyler has to watch Josh work on his truck, _shirtless_ and _wet_ and, well, _greasy_.  
His known stance nowadays is face-down on his bed or spread-eagle with a hand down his shorts.

Jenna tells him he’s getting pale and he makes some excuse of being sick, while he really just doesn’t eat or sleep and masturbates almost too much to be healthy because _Josh_.

Thank God she doesn’t burst into his bedroom anymore without knocking. Feels like she doesn’t talk to him at all anymore, really.

This is gonna kill him, this lack of human (Josh) contact, he thinks, and comes for the third time that day with a choking whine threatening on Josh’s name.

•

Tyler goes out on the roof that night.  
He perches outside of his window and watches the lazy light that pours from Josh’s house across the street.  
He misses him.

He feels dumb, for feeling such a wanton tug of longing for someone he’s only really spent a few weeks getting to know fully.  
There’s just something different about Josh that left too much of a lasting impression.

His toes scratch against the rough shingles of the roof and he finally brings himself to scrunch his shoulders up in an attempt of warmth and fight against the chilly wind blowing his hair to and fro. He climbs back through his window and sits on the sill, teeth gnawing at his bottom lip (which is hard, when he only has two normal ones up top.)

His fingers shake a little when he presses in Josh’s number on the beaten old phone plugged into his bedroom. He’s got to sit on the floor beside his bed to be able to call, since the cord didn’t reach at far as his bed.

It’s dull rings until a tired voice picks up.

”Tyler?”

”How’d you know?” He says after a quiet laugh.  
“Lucky guess.”

”Did I wake you?” He fumbles with the phone cord and he breathes a bit easier hearing Josh’s voice again.  
“Nah. I just took a little nap with Jim because he got real snuggly. What’s up?”

Tyler can imagine the pup wriggling under Josh’s embrace and licking his chin.  
“Nothing much. Kinda bored, really. I mith your recordth. And Jim. It’th tho quiet all the time here.”

”Aw, you pick my dog over me?”  
Tyler can almost see Josh’s false pout and he smiles for the first time in weeks.

”I mith you more than anything,” He confirms.

There’s a quiet chuckle. “I’m flattered.”  
“D’you have a record player?”

”Yeah. Th’pretty old but it workth. Don’t have any recordth though,” Tyler says with a snort.

He can hear Josh click his tongue.  
“Sorry, man. I’d bring some over to you but I don’t wanna get lynched in your front lawn.”

Josh’s laugh is a lot louder because he’s alone.

”How do you do it?” He continues. “Live in that house, I mean. Doesn’t Jenna know you’re gay?”

Tyler brings his hood over his head to warm his red tingling ears. “Yeah. She pretendth not to notithe, though. She knowth why the accident happened, and ith determined to keep me away from any ‘queerth’ in an attempt to make the gay go away.”  
They both laugh.

”Yikes. She thinks it’s that easy?”

”She put tea tree oil in my hair to get rid of nonexistent lithe because I thtayed at your houthe for too long.” He rolls his eyes and thinks of how he can still smell the acrid scent of it lingering in his hair.

”That sucks, man.” There’s a pause, like he’s moving.  
“Hey, um, can I ask you something?” His voice sounds nervous.

”Go ahead,” Tyler says and his heart beats a little faster.

”I know this is..stupid to say over the phone but, I-I really like you. Is that weird? We’ve known each other for a while now, um-I mean, I.. want to be your boyfriend, Tyler. If that’s okay? Is that okay? It’s not weird, is it? I mean-”  
He rushes the last part out in a huff of nerves.

Tyler claps a hand over his mouth to keep from squealing with joy.

”Tyler? Oh God, did I mess everything up? Shit, I’m sorry. I really like you and-and I thought you liked me too? I guess-uh-”

He almost drops the phone and swallows thickly. The smile creeping on his face is almost painful. Josh is still going off on the other end.  
“Josh.”

”..What?”

He’s still smiling when he says, “I’d love to be your boyfriend, okay? I think you’re amazing and thweet and thuper duper hot.” He really stretches out his lisp on the last part and makes them both giggle in giddy love-struck happiness.

He hears a quiet sound of excitement on the other end.  
“So we’re boyfriends?”

Tyler hears shouting from down the hall and bunches up into his hoodie, heart hammering against his chest full of ooey gooey love.

”We’re _definitely_ boyfriendth.”

•

Jenna broke up with Brendon.  
Tyler hears about it for the next four days.

The only time he doesn’t is when he’s sneaking to Josh’s house to steal kisses and curl up with a good film.  
It was like a teenage love story the first time.

He’d snuck over at the ass o’clock in the morning, shivering from the cold and knocking ever so carefully until Josh opened his front door in nothing but boxers while Jim barked behind him.  
“Hey,” He had said, equally frazzled and tired.

Josh had simply taken in the form in front of him and pulled him inside.  
And before he could mumble out why he was there at 3 AM, Josh pulled him into a warm post-sleep kiss that left his mind clouded and stomach jolting.

”I just,” He breathed, and Tyler felt like his whole body had been set aflame. “I just needed to do that.”

”I’m allowed to, right? Since we’re..boyfriends and all,” He grinned ear to ear at the title.

Tyler nodded and draped his arms around Josh’s neck.  
“Can we, um, do that again?”

And Josh complied happily with Jim’s tail thumping a rhythm of love on the carpet.

•

Jenna catches on too quick.

On a night that should’ve been special, that could’ve possibly been the night him and Josh had _sex_ , he finds bars on his window and a missing phone from his bedroom. There’s also a lock that latches from the outside on his door.

He thinks he could call the cops for this type of shit.

”I know where you’ve been going,” Jenna told him with a shake of her head. “I told you he was a bad influence and what do you do!” She got so flustered and angry Tyler refused to answer and instead stayed in his room like a rebellious teenager.

She’s not his mom, he thinks.  
Josh had planned such a big date for them. How is he going to tell him he can’t make it?

God, he’s going to hate him. He’s going to break up with him and they’ll never talk again.

He lights a cigarette to calm his nerves and hears Jenna coming upstairs.  
“I’m coming in,” She warned. Tyler tried really really hard not to start crying right now because she’s the last person he wants to see.

Instead he sits in the middle of his bedroom with a neglected cigarette and tears running down his cheeks.  
He feels so stupid. He can’t even control his own emotions when Jenna walks in and sees the mess he’s become.

”Baby,” She coos. “I don’t want you to see you like this.”

”I’m not unloveable,” He says through sniffles. “Josh loveth me, Jenna. He loveth me tho much and he would never, ever hurt me,” His voice is thick and slurred with extra saliva and emotions. Only a choice few would be able to understand him because of those stupid teeth in his mouth.  
He wipes drool off his chin with the sleeve of his hoodie.

”Pleathe, just truth me.”

“How do you know that?” Jenna is sitting now, across from him on his filthy carpet with her legs tucked beneath her. “You know how much it hurt me to see you so broken? When they opened the hospital door and I couldn’t even tell who you were? I couldn’t bear to see that happen again, sweetheart.”

”It won’t,” He tries to reason.  
Jenna shushes him.

 _Liar,_ Tyler’s brain screams at him. _She didn’t even care. She never cared. You’re just a waking insurance check._  
Instead the gnawing pit at the bottom of his stomach-guilt, he believes it’s named-chews it way up to his words.

”I’m thorry,” He mumbles. Ashes fall onto the floor and burn more holes in the crunchy carpet and his cigarette is burned down to the stub touching his fingers.  
He lets it burn.

Jenna kisses his forehead and leaves his lamp on.  
“I do this because I love you, you know that?”  
Tyler hears the door click shut and knows there’s no way out.

The phone rings downstairs.

•

Tyler is, in his own sense, going to die.

He’s alone so much it feels like the only sane person in his life is the little voice in the back of his head telling him what to do and when.

 _You have to eat now, Tyler. You need to sleep now. You should probably shower, Tyler._  
He’s so bored.

He watches the season of autumn change into winter from his bedroom window and shivers when flakes of snow drift through the sill.

He sees Josh sometimes. With Jim, out in the snow, or hopping into his truck, or just sitting in comfort with his living room curtains a bit too open. As if he knows Tyler is stuck in the house across the street.

He’s heard him try to call a few times. It’s when Jenna shouts and uses those F words that make him feel a little less whole inside.

Fag, he thinks and paints his fingernails bright red.  
Fag, indeed.

•

”Josh.”

”Joshua!”

Tyler taps on the rickety front door again. “Josh, I’m gonna break the door down-!”

It opens in a surprising creak that makes Tyler jump back a bit.  
“Tyler,” Josh rubs his eyes and looks a tad..confused, really.

”Why are you here?”

”I’m here to have sexth with you,” Tyler says with a boyish grin.

Josh sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. Jim wags his tail in a happy greeting behind him. “At four in the morning?”

”Yeth, now let me in before my dick freezeth off.” Tyler pushes past him and gives Jim a playful pat on the head.

”You might wanna fill me in-no pun intended,” Josh frowns and starts to turn his lights on. “Um, on just why you decided to pop back up here after a month and a half of not talking to me.”

Tyler sits on the couch with his legs tucked beneath him. “Jenna kept me captive,” He says with a laugh. “She locked my doorth and put barth on my window.”

Josh stares. “Seriously?”  
Tyler nods and starts taking his shirt off.

”Okay, exthplaining done, let’th have sexth.”

”Wait,” Josh puts a hand up. Tyler groans.

”Why now? Did you escape or something? And why are you so adamant about sex?”

”You athk tho many questionth, Josh, fuck,” The brunette rolls his eyes. “Yeth, I ethcaped, and I want to have sexth with you becauthe I love you and you love me and I only have tho much time before Jenna cometh looking for me.”

Josh is still unhappy. “Tyler, I’m not going to sleep with you just because you’re free for a good hour or so.”

Tyler stops.

”Yes,” He admits, and it’s quite hard to talk to seriously when he’s tired and standing cold in his boxers, but Tyler gives him his full undying attention. He even looks a bit hurt.  
“I want to have sex with you. But Tyler, don’t you understand how it works? You can’t just..I don’t know, burst into my house and start taking your clothes off.”

”Want me to wine and dine you then?” Tyler cocks his head.

”Tyler, have you ever had sex?”

The brunette nods.

”You know it’s emotional, then, yes?”

He thinks for a moment. “I never felt much of anything emotional when I had sexth.”

Josh sits beside him now, and Jim rests his furry head between Tyler’s legs.  
“What did you feel?”

Tyler shrugs. “I dunno. Thcared? Nervouth. It didn’t feel that good, either.” His expression falls a bit. “To be honetht, I didn’t really want it.”

He recounts stories of lingering, bruising fingers and days of sore thighs until Josh is in tears for him.

”I’m thorry,” He says. “It’th-It’th not a big deal, Josh, I’m thorry.”

Josh says nothing and instead envelopes him in a hug he can’t return.

“I’m getting you out of that house,” He says. “You’ve been hurt too much by her, Tyler.”  
Tyler swallows thickly. “Good luck.”

That night, he stays.

And that night, Josh sleeps on the other couch and listens to the rustling, whining sounds of night terrors.

•

Jenna is outnumbered two to one.

Tyler faces her with tears in his eyes when he retells every horrid thing she’s done that he’d always glazed over. When spoken out loud, they speak for millions.  
Josh stands behind him the whole time.

His things are packed up, taken out and moved across the street. Josh promises that he’s looking for a new house in a safer neighborhood.

He walks across the road with no fear. Josh holds his hand the whole way.  
No one ever jumps out like they did when he lived over there.

He cries the first few nights and Jim ends up glued to his side on the daily. He helps with the terrors at night.  
When Tyler wakes up sweating and gasping for his own life Jim nuzzles his chin before Josh can stir, licks his face and paws him back to sleep with a gentle muzzle.

He’s decided to give love a try, at least for dogs.

•

Tyler still shakes. Josh helps him with it and he’s not scared to pick stuff up as he was before. Whenever he does drop something, there’s always a pair of helping hands to give it back.

Josh doesn’t mind his teeth.  
Tyler used to kiss to timidly, scared of the feeling that could be felt of his fucked up little reminders stuck in his mouth.

Josh doesn’t care one bit.

•

They make love on a Wednesday.

Tyler cries underneath Josh, chest shaking while he gasps out his love’s name because _it feels good_.

It feels so good, in fact, that he buries his face into Josh’s neck twice and shakes with his second orgasm of the night when he’s told _“I love you.”_

Josh praises his body like a worshipper awaiting salvation.

••

Josh’s new house is big. Yet cozy.  
Tyler stays at home while he works and takes care of Jim and their new abode.

It’s been almost a year and even though he still gets those risky phone calls once in a while from _her_ , he couldn’t find himself in a happier place.

A happier, accepting place.

They’re becoming more acquired-society, that is. Tyler doesn’t get looks when he holds Josh’s hand. He doesn’t get snide words or boldly rude comments when he kisses Josh’s cheek.

The only way to go is up, he thinks.

Josh says he likes it when Tyler experiments with makeup, or wears things on the more feminine side.  
He’s told he’s just plain beautiful.

It’s November now, the same month shared with the memory of Jenna’s rickety old house and that horrid street paved in between salvation and Hell.

Leaves blow in swirls and Jim tried to catch them all. It’s bliss in this moment now.

On this anniversary of Tyler taking those gentle steps onto the sidewalk a year ago, Josh presents him with a ring.

And he says _yeth_ , with mascara running down his cheeks, coating his gloriously joyous tears.

**Author's Note:**

> me: im gonna write a story ok  
> my brain: ok  
> me: tyler has a lisp and it’s the 80s  
> my brain: ok  
> my brain: no wait how do we write the lis  
> me: L I S P
> 
>    
> AKA this was a fucking clusterfuck to write y’all better like it  
> im sorry for the shitty ending this was getting close to being automatically deleted and i needed to finish it  
> :(


End file.
